"What!?! How did you lose him? He is just one measly little human boy!
And you dare to come back to me saying he got away?" Rubeus glared at the
bleeding creature before him.
"My Lord, I was attacked. Twice." the creature said, clutching its arm.
"By who? No one other than you and I even knew what you were doing. Who would have even known to attack you?"
"I'm do not know, my Lord. I was transporting the boy here when I was hit from behind and shoved out of the teleportation."
"You were forced out of the teleportation? That is impossible. To do it, a person would have to be the at the exact same moment as you were. The exact same moment." Rubeus sneered.
"I don't know how it happened, my Lord."
"Fine. And the second attack?"
"A woman and her hound found me as I was just about to reclaim the boy."
"Another Sailor Scout?" Rubeus asked, a slight note of fear creeping into his voice.
"No, just a woman." The creature answered, cringing.
"You mean to say that you were beat by a normal human woman?" Rubeus said, his fury rising again.
"I am sorry, Lord Rubeus." the monster said.
"Sorry for what?"
Rubeus spun towards the door where a man stood, his arms crossed.
"Helios! How is Rini?"
"She is resting." came the curt reply, "What is going on here?"
"This one was just apologizing for getting into a fight with the Sailor Scouts when it was against your wishes." Rubeus said, his tongue smoothly giving life to the lie he had just thought up.
"You attacked the scouts directly?" the other man seemed to tower over Rubeus in his fury.
"No, and as you can see, this demon left as soon as possible from the fight, so there was no damage done to your plan."
"We are not yet ready to face them! Rini is weak still from creating our weapon." Helios said, his voice deadly.
"If you will let me explain..."
"I don't care what happened, we can't afford any mistakes. The scouts need to be caught unawares when we attack so that means leaving them alone! That means, we do not attack them!" Helios interrupted angrily, his cold eyes freezing the two in front of him in place.
"I understand. It won't happen again." Rubeus said, his fear of the man in front of him warring with his contempt of him.
"See that it doesn't." Helios said, spinning around and leaving.
Rubeus glared at the retreating figure before turning on the demon in front of him, "We are running out of time. Bring me the boy. I am going to send a message to Sailor Moon."
* * * * *
For the next half hour, Sam and Lita talked about what had happened and plans to get him home. Both had decided that they needed a good way to explain the situation to Sam's parents. 'Monsters kidnapped me and dropped me in Ireland' lacked a certain credibility. But it was hard, considering they didn't understand what had happened either.
"Is there anyone you could call? Someone who might know more about these monsters? Or even seen Sailor Moon?" Lita asked.
"No, I don't know anyone like that. I mean, everyone reads the newspaper stories about her but I don't know anyone who has ever even really seen Sailor Moon." Sam replied.
"Okay. But that just brings us back to your parents. We have to get you home. And they are going to want an explanation for you being gone. What are we supposed to tell them?"
"I don't know. I don't think my Dad even really believes that Sailor Moon exists so telling him I got grabbed by some monsters may not go over so well."
"But don't you think being in Ireland may give your story some credibility?" Lita asked.
"I don't know. It just seems too weird. Too...unbelievable. I barely believe it." Sam said, looking at the brown haired girl who had saved him, hoping for another rescue.
"I understand. Completely." Lita said, and then glanced at the clock. "You stay here alright. I have to go let in my staff."
Sam watched as Lita walked out of her apartment, a big black and tan dog walking, or like bouncing, along with her. They were only gone a short time but it seemed like forever to Sam. He was trying to stay calm, to not be scared but too much had happened. At least with Lita there, he had someone else to look to. When she left him alone, all he had was his own thoughts to occupy himself with. And those thoughts were almost all unanswerable questions.
Why was he in Ireland? Why had he been kidnapped? How was he getting home? Was the monster going to come back?
Lita came back up and smiled, "I told them that a friend of mine had shown up and surprised me so I'm taking the week off."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to screw your life up like this." Sam said.
Don't worry about it. Not your fault. Besides," she said with a small smile, "I needed a vacation."
Sam smiled weakly at her.
"So, I was thinking, what we really need is some sort of bat signal for Sailor Moon. After all, this is really her problem. So, we need to find a way to get her attention. Any ideas?"
"No. Um...as far as I can tell, she just shows up when people are in trouble."
"Hmm...I think we need to do some snooping. I've never heard of Sailor Moon outside of Japan, after all. I wonder what is going on." Lita said, walking over and flicking on her computer.
After several searches, they were able to find reports of monsters all throughout Europe and Asia. There seemed to be the most sightings and attacks in the major cities like Tokyo and London. But they were still no closer to finding a way to contact Sailor Moon. In only a handful of the attacks did people claim to have seen the legend. A few of the newer reports mentioned similar fighters appearing though, which was interesting.
The other interesting thing was that there were no groups of missing persons. Lita knew that most of the police wouldn't start investigating a missing person until they've been gone a couple days but if monsters really were kidnapping people, then wouldn't that have caused some suspicion? Unless they only kidnapped a couple people?
Or maybe, Lita glanced sidelong at Sam, they only kidnapped one person.
But why him? What made him special?
* * * * *
A tall figure watched the young man and the woman talk. She almost hadn't been able to save him. The threads of fate had been changing almost constantly lately, overwhelming her with all the possibilities. If she had been a fraction of a second off in her timing when she had intercepted the young man and his would be kidnapper, she would have missed her chance and another future would have occurred, one with less hope in it than the current time line.
Soon, very soon, she would have to leave her post and take a more direct course of action than she had thus far. There were too many things that the Princess did not know, too many things that she had to know before she did something that she would forever regret.
Sailor Pluto, guardian of the gates of time, gazed for a moment at the thousands of possibilities that the future held and waited silently for her time.
* * * * *
Serena and Darien were having a quiet dinner on her couch, watching a French film, Amelie, that Darien had picked up on his way over. Serena was in love with it. It was a romance but there was enough quirks and humor in it that Darien seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was. On the floor, curled up together were Luna and Artemis, who seemed to also be enjoying the movie. And the dinner, which thankfully had not been cooked by Serena.
The phone rang and Serena groaned. It was probably a telemarketer. Somehow they always knew when she was eating and decided to call then. She had almost bought herself caller ID, just so she could tell if she should answer.
"Hello." She said, watching Darien's butt as he bent over to pause the movie for her.
"Hello, this is Mrs. Tsukino, Sam's mother." the voice on the other end began.
Serena could feel the blood draining out of her face. It had been years since she had heard her mother's voice. Darien was immediately beside her, his eyes asking what was wrong as he took in her shaking hands and pale face..
"I was wondering if you have seen him at all today? I'm sorry to bother you but I'm going through Sam's address book here and I came across your number. He wasn't here this morning and he hasn't been home all day. I'm really worried about him." her mother's voice continued, a slight waver at the end telling Serena that she wasn't as calm as she was trying to pretend to be..
"No. No, I haven't seen him for a couple days. He's...is he missing?" Serena looked at Darien, trying to think of what could have happened. At her feet she could feel Luna and Artemis, gazing up at her, just as worried about her reaction to the call as Darien.
"I don't know. He's never done anything like this before. He always tells me where he's going and when he'll be back. Yours was the last number I called. I've been trying all of his friends that I know first. But no one has seen him." Her mother's voice was slowly becoming more and more frantic as she talked, "I don't know what to do anymore. The police can't do anything for another 24 hours. What if he's hurt? What if something happened to him?"
"I'm sure he's fine. Something probably happened and he lost track of time." Serena said, trying to offer comfort to both herself and her mother.
"You are probably right. I'm probably overreacting. Thank you for your help miss. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get your name. All Sam has written down here is an 'S'."
Serena felt panic welling up inside of her. What should she say? She couldn't lie to her mother. Not anymore. She had lied enough. But she couldn't just tell her that she was talking to her daughter. Could she? After all this time?
"I'm sorry. I've got to go. I'll do what I can to find him for you and get him home. I'm really sorry." Serena babbled out as fast as she could before slamming the receiver down.
Darien pulled her into his arms and began petting her hair, trying to get her to calm down. She clung to him, wrapping his strength around her like a protective blanket against old pain and tried to force back the tears.
She had taken the coward's way out. She knew it. But she had never been really brave to begin with.
"Sammy's missing." she mumbled into Darien's chest, "That was my mother."
"Oh my." she heard Luna gasp.
Out of all of her friends, Luna and Artemis were the only two who had been with her when her parents had thrown her out. They had been the ones who had held her together, who had forced her to keep fighting as Sailor Moon when she had wanted to quit, they had watched as she had gone hungry so that she could pay her rent. The two cats had often gone hunting for their own food instead of eating the cat food Serena had always bought for them before she bought her own food.
And it was the two cats who had seen Serena's mother's face when Serena had walked out of the house that last time. Her father had been stern but her mother's doubts had been obvious in her eyes. Serena had known they were doing it because it was what they thought was best but that didn't stop it from being painful. A part of her had always felt that her parents, simply because they were her parents, should never have given up on her like they did. They should have tried harder to understand her.
Even now, she felt almost betrayed by the fact her mother hadn't recognized her voice. Weren't mother's supposed to be able to recognize their own children? She knew this was irrational but that didn't stop her from feeling that way.
Another part of Serena blamed herself. She should have told her parents who she was and why she couldn't follow their rules, why she had to always sneak out of the house at night.
Now, her brother, the only family she had left, was missing.
Finally, she pulled away a little from Darien, "I have to find him."
"We will, don't worry." Darien said before adding softly, "Did she know who you were?"
"No. She just got my number from Sammy's stuff. Apparently he didn't write down whose number it was." Serena said.
"I'm sorry." Darien said, "I'm sorry."
* * * * *
Hey all! Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. You are all wonderful! Anyways, I hope I cleared up some questions about Sam's rescue. I'm moving my butt back to WI in the next couple weeks here so I'm going to apologize ahead of time for my timeliness in putting out the next chapter. Okay, on the my favorite part of the AN...
Terenity Rose - Thanks. I know it took awhile to get this out but I hope you like it.
Kaji1 - Hey! I'm so glad you still like this and are reading. Trust me, I understand how easy it is to lose track of a story. And with compliments like yours, I'm likely to forgive you anything.
happygolucky111 - I'm so glad you liked that last chapter. Sorry it took so long to get this one out. Hope it was worth the wait.
firelightz - Don't worry, you were supposed to be kinda confused. Sammy dropping into Lita's lap like was too big of a coincidence. But I hope this chapter cleared up some things. Basically, Pluto is messing with things.
looneygirl - trust me, there are much worse cliffies I could do. For instance, this chapter almost ended when Serena's mom asked her her name.
kalinda - I am really glad you liked that last chapter. So many people were anticipating Lita showing up that I was a little worried about disappointing them.
SeleneA - The other Generals will be coming, I'm just not quite sure when. This story tends to be get away from me at times.
Serenity55 - I didn't think anyone would notice that last chapter was a little longer than my usual. Wow. Major brownie points to you. Sorry this wasn't quite as timely though. As for my monsters, I really have that part of the story all plotted out in my head. It's the scouts that I'm not always sure about. But the major conflicts are going to start to get going here soon. I was kinda waiting to get Lita in here before I did anything too major.
Sailor Momoiro Hoshi - THANK YOU! OMG! That was so nice of you. I'll share the cookie with you. You are too, too cool.
lazzykane - Na, Zak is just this great friend of Lita's. I've given most of my characters friends outside of the scouts, people that they've met over the years. Zak being married though was just something that came out while I was writing.
Marni - Thanks, it was kind of a challenge to find new ways of introducing each scout. I was a little worried that things might be getting stale or boring for you guys reading this.
Ginny-Star - I'll tell you a secret, Lass is actually based off a real dog. Kinda scary when you first see her but a real baby. She'll also have the same reaction to cats that the real dog has...*evil laugh*
Jedi Master Calriel - See, you always seem to ask all the right questions. I really don't know when Nephlite is going to come in exactly. I almost brought in a hint of him in this chapter but scraped it because I didn't like it. I have a different idea that might be more in character for him.
Belle - hey! always great to get a new reader, especially one who likes my story that much. Trust me, I have problems with the whole Sam/Sammy thing and I'm the author. But I figured it was something needed to define his character a little more. But I figure if I have problems remembering, so will Serena, thus the occasional slippage by her.
Mercurial1 - Don't worry, I purposefully left the whole Sam getting to Ireland thing a little fuzzy. But I hope I cleared some of that up with this chapter. If not, well, I'm going to adding more explanation as things unfold.
Miko633 - Hey! I'm glad I finally got to hear from you. Its always cool to know people are reading this, whether they like it or hate it. But I'm really glad you like it so far. I try and keep people guessing about what will happen next. Its cool to hear people's guesses on what is going to happen and their takes on the characters. Well, I hope to hear from you again (but as one lazy person to another, don't feel bad if it takes a couple chapters ;)
Lil-PrincessK - sorry, couldn't quite update as quickly as last time. I missed my 5pm deadline by a little there. And Zak is married so none of my wonderful readers decides he'd be better with Lita than Nephlite. hee hee.
BenRG - hmm...Interesting thought...I may have to think about that a bit. And thanks for the Lita feedback. I'm always worried that I'm screwing up the characters.
JerseyGirl03 - hey, curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. You may not remember, but I've already killed off the Wiseman. I never thought about sending the scouts into the future but it is a possibility. Oh, and the other Generals are defiantly alive.
"My Lord, I was attacked. Twice." the creature said, clutching its arm.
"By who? No one other than you and I even knew what you were doing. Who would have even known to attack you?"
"I'm do not know, my Lord. I was transporting the boy here when I was hit from behind and shoved out of the teleportation."
"You were forced out of the teleportation? That is impossible. To do it, a person would have to be the at the exact same moment as you were. The exact same moment." Rubeus sneered.
"I don't know how it happened, my Lord."
"Fine. And the second attack?"
"A woman and her hound found me as I was just about to reclaim the boy."
"Another Sailor Scout?" Rubeus asked, a slight note of fear creeping into his voice.
"No, just a woman." The creature answered, cringing.
"You mean to say that you were beat by a normal human woman?" Rubeus said, his fury rising again.
"I am sorry, Lord Rubeus." the monster said.
"Sorry for what?"
Rubeus spun towards the door where a man stood, his arms crossed.
"Helios! How is Rini?"
"She is resting." came the curt reply, "What is going on here?"
"This one was just apologizing for getting into a fight with the Sailor Scouts when it was against your wishes." Rubeus said, his tongue smoothly giving life to the lie he had just thought up.
"You attacked the scouts directly?" the other man seemed to tower over Rubeus in his fury.
"No, and as you can see, this demon left as soon as possible from the fight, so there was no damage done to your plan."
"We are not yet ready to face them! Rini is weak still from creating our weapon." Helios said, his voice deadly.
"If you will let me explain..."
"I don't care what happened, we can't afford any mistakes. The scouts need to be caught unawares when we attack so that means leaving them alone! That means, we do not attack them!" Helios interrupted angrily, his cold eyes freezing the two in front of him in place.
"I understand. It won't happen again." Rubeus said, his fear of the man in front of him warring with his contempt of him.
"See that it doesn't." Helios said, spinning around and leaving.
Rubeus glared at the retreating figure before turning on the demon in front of him, "We are running out of time. Bring me the boy. I am going to send a message to Sailor Moon."
* * * * *
For the next half hour, Sam and Lita talked about what had happened and plans to get him home. Both had decided that they needed a good way to explain the situation to Sam's parents. 'Monsters kidnapped me and dropped me in Ireland' lacked a certain credibility. But it was hard, considering they didn't understand what had happened either.
"Is there anyone you could call? Someone who might know more about these monsters? Or even seen Sailor Moon?" Lita asked.
"No, I don't know anyone like that. I mean, everyone reads the newspaper stories about her but I don't know anyone who has ever even really seen Sailor Moon." Sam replied.
"Okay. But that just brings us back to your parents. We have to get you home. And they are going to want an explanation for you being gone. What are we supposed to tell them?"
"I don't know. I don't think my Dad even really believes that Sailor Moon exists so telling him I got grabbed by some monsters may not go over so well."
"But don't you think being in Ireland may give your story some credibility?" Lita asked.
"I don't know. It just seems too weird. Too...unbelievable. I barely believe it." Sam said, looking at the brown haired girl who had saved him, hoping for another rescue.
"I understand. Completely." Lita said, and then glanced at the clock. "You stay here alright. I have to go let in my staff."
Sam watched as Lita walked out of her apartment, a big black and tan dog walking, or like bouncing, along with her. They were only gone a short time but it seemed like forever to Sam. He was trying to stay calm, to not be scared but too much had happened. At least with Lita there, he had someone else to look to. When she left him alone, all he had was his own thoughts to occupy himself with. And those thoughts were almost all unanswerable questions.
Why was he in Ireland? Why had he been kidnapped? How was he getting home? Was the monster going to come back?
Lita came back up and smiled, "I told them that a friend of mine had shown up and surprised me so I'm taking the week off."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to screw your life up like this." Sam said.
Don't worry about it. Not your fault. Besides," she said with a small smile, "I needed a vacation."
Sam smiled weakly at her.
"So, I was thinking, what we really need is some sort of bat signal for Sailor Moon. After all, this is really her problem. So, we need to find a way to get her attention. Any ideas?"
"No. Um...as far as I can tell, she just shows up when people are in trouble."
"Hmm...I think we need to do some snooping. I've never heard of Sailor Moon outside of Japan, after all. I wonder what is going on." Lita said, walking over and flicking on her computer.
After several searches, they were able to find reports of monsters all throughout Europe and Asia. There seemed to be the most sightings and attacks in the major cities like Tokyo and London. But they were still no closer to finding a way to contact Sailor Moon. In only a handful of the attacks did people claim to have seen the legend. A few of the newer reports mentioned similar fighters appearing though, which was interesting.
The other interesting thing was that there were no groups of missing persons. Lita knew that most of the police wouldn't start investigating a missing person until they've been gone a couple days but if monsters really were kidnapping people, then wouldn't that have caused some suspicion? Unless they only kidnapped a couple people?
Or maybe, Lita glanced sidelong at Sam, they only kidnapped one person.
But why him? What made him special?
* * * * *
A tall figure watched the young man and the woman talk. She almost hadn't been able to save him. The threads of fate had been changing almost constantly lately, overwhelming her with all the possibilities. If she had been a fraction of a second off in her timing when she had intercepted the young man and his would be kidnapper, she would have missed her chance and another future would have occurred, one with less hope in it than the current time line.
Soon, very soon, she would have to leave her post and take a more direct course of action than she had thus far. There were too many things that the Princess did not know, too many things that she had to know before she did something that she would forever regret.
Sailor Pluto, guardian of the gates of time, gazed for a moment at the thousands of possibilities that the future held and waited silently for her time.
* * * * *
Serena and Darien were having a quiet dinner on her couch, watching a French film, Amelie, that Darien had picked up on his way over. Serena was in love with it. It was a romance but there was enough quirks and humor in it that Darien seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was. On the floor, curled up together were Luna and Artemis, who seemed to also be enjoying the movie. And the dinner, which thankfully had not been cooked by Serena.
The phone rang and Serena groaned. It was probably a telemarketer. Somehow they always knew when she was eating and decided to call then. She had almost bought herself caller ID, just so she could tell if she should answer.
"Hello." She said, watching Darien's butt as he bent over to pause the movie for her.
"Hello, this is Mrs. Tsukino, Sam's mother." the voice on the other end began.
Serena could feel the blood draining out of her face. It had been years since she had heard her mother's voice. Darien was immediately beside her, his eyes asking what was wrong as he took in her shaking hands and pale face..
"I was wondering if you have seen him at all today? I'm sorry to bother you but I'm going through Sam's address book here and I came across your number. He wasn't here this morning and he hasn't been home all day. I'm really worried about him." her mother's voice continued, a slight waver at the end telling Serena that she wasn't as calm as she was trying to pretend to be..
"No. No, I haven't seen him for a couple days. He's...is he missing?" Serena looked at Darien, trying to think of what could have happened. At her feet she could feel Luna and Artemis, gazing up at her, just as worried about her reaction to the call as Darien.
"I don't know. He's never done anything like this before. He always tells me where he's going and when he'll be back. Yours was the last number I called. I've been trying all of his friends that I know first. But no one has seen him." Her mother's voice was slowly becoming more and more frantic as she talked, "I don't know what to do anymore. The police can't do anything for another 24 hours. What if he's hurt? What if something happened to him?"
"I'm sure he's fine. Something probably happened and he lost track of time." Serena said, trying to offer comfort to both herself and her mother.
"You are probably right. I'm probably overreacting. Thank you for your help miss. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't get your name. All Sam has written down here is an 'S'."
Serena felt panic welling up inside of her. What should she say? She couldn't lie to her mother. Not anymore. She had lied enough. But she couldn't just tell her that she was talking to her daughter. Could she? After all this time?
"I'm sorry. I've got to go. I'll do what I can to find him for you and get him home. I'm really sorry." Serena babbled out as fast as she could before slamming the receiver down.
Darien pulled her into his arms and began petting her hair, trying to get her to calm down. She clung to him, wrapping his strength around her like a protective blanket against old pain and tried to force back the tears.
She had taken the coward's way out. She knew it. But she had never been really brave to begin with.
"Sammy's missing." she mumbled into Darien's chest, "That was my mother."
"Oh my." she heard Luna gasp.
Out of all of her friends, Luna and Artemis were the only two who had been with her when her parents had thrown her out. They had been the ones who had held her together, who had forced her to keep fighting as Sailor Moon when she had wanted to quit, they had watched as she had gone hungry so that she could pay her rent. The two cats had often gone hunting for their own food instead of eating the cat food Serena had always bought for them before she bought her own food.
And it was the two cats who had seen Serena's mother's face when Serena had walked out of the house that last time. Her father had been stern but her mother's doubts had been obvious in her eyes. Serena had known they were doing it because it was what they thought was best but that didn't stop it from being painful. A part of her had always felt that her parents, simply because they were her parents, should never have given up on her like they did. They should have tried harder to understand her.
Even now, she felt almost betrayed by the fact her mother hadn't recognized her voice. Weren't mother's supposed to be able to recognize their own children? She knew this was irrational but that didn't stop her from feeling that way.
Another part of Serena blamed herself. She should have told her parents who she was and why she couldn't follow their rules, why she had to always sneak out of the house at night.
Now, her brother, the only family she had left, was missing.
Finally, she pulled away a little from Darien, "I have to find him."
"We will, don't worry." Darien said before adding softly, "Did she know who you were?"
"No. She just got my number from Sammy's stuff. Apparently he didn't write down whose number it was." Serena said.
"I'm sorry." Darien said, "I'm sorry."
* * * * *
Hey all! Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. You are all wonderful! Anyways, I hope I cleared up some questions about Sam's rescue. I'm moving my butt back to WI in the next couple weeks here so I'm going to apologize ahead of time for my timeliness in putting out the next chapter. Okay, on the my favorite part of the AN...
Terenity Rose - Thanks. I know it took awhile to get this out but I hope you like it.
Kaji1 - Hey! I'm so glad you still like this and are reading. Trust me, I understand how easy it is to lose track of a story. And with compliments like yours, I'm likely to forgive you anything.
happygolucky111 - I'm so glad you liked that last chapter. Sorry it took so long to get this one out. Hope it was worth the wait.
firelightz - Don't worry, you were supposed to be kinda confused. Sammy dropping into Lita's lap like was too big of a coincidence. But I hope this chapter cleared up some things. Basically, Pluto is messing with things.
looneygirl - trust me, there are much worse cliffies I could do. For instance, this chapter almost ended when Serena's mom asked her her name.
kalinda - I am really glad you liked that last chapter. So many people were anticipating Lita showing up that I was a little worried about disappointing them.
SeleneA - The other Generals will be coming, I'm just not quite sure when. This story tends to be get away from me at times.
Serenity55 - I didn't think anyone would notice that last chapter was a little longer than my usual. Wow. Major brownie points to you. Sorry this wasn't quite as timely though. As for my monsters, I really have that part of the story all plotted out in my head. It's the scouts that I'm not always sure about. But the major conflicts are going to start to get going here soon. I was kinda waiting to get Lita in here before I did anything too major.
Sailor Momoiro Hoshi - THANK YOU! OMG! That was so nice of you. I'll share the cookie with you. You are too, too cool.
lazzykane - Na, Zak is just this great friend of Lita's. I've given most of my characters friends outside of the scouts, people that they've met over the years. Zak being married though was just something that came out while I was writing.
Marni - Thanks, it was kind of a challenge to find new ways of introducing each scout. I was a little worried that things might be getting stale or boring for you guys reading this.
Ginny-Star - I'll tell you a secret, Lass is actually based off a real dog. Kinda scary when you first see her but a real baby. She'll also have the same reaction to cats that the real dog has...*evil laugh*
Jedi Master Calriel - See, you always seem to ask all the right questions. I really don't know when Nephlite is going to come in exactly. I almost brought in a hint of him in this chapter but scraped it because I didn't like it. I have a different idea that might be more in character for him.
Belle - hey! always great to get a new reader, especially one who likes my story that much. Trust me, I have problems with the whole Sam/Sammy thing and I'm the author. But I figured it was something needed to define his character a little more. But I figure if I have problems remembering, so will Serena, thus the occasional slippage by her.
Mercurial1 - Don't worry, I purposefully left the whole Sam getting to Ireland thing a little fuzzy. But I hope I cleared some of that up with this chapter. If not, well, I'm going to adding more explanation as things unfold.
Miko633 - Hey! I'm glad I finally got to hear from you. Its always cool to know people are reading this, whether they like it or hate it. But I'm really glad you like it so far. I try and keep people guessing about what will happen next. Its cool to hear people's guesses on what is going to happen and their takes on the characters. Well, I hope to hear from you again (but as one lazy person to another, don't feel bad if it takes a couple chapters ;)
Lil-PrincessK - sorry, couldn't quite update as quickly as last time. I missed my 5pm deadline by a little there. And Zak is married so none of my wonderful readers decides he'd be better with Lita than Nephlite. hee hee.
BenRG - hmm...Interesting thought...I may have to think about that a bit. And thanks for the Lita feedback. I'm always worried that I'm screwing up the characters.
JerseyGirl03 - hey, curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. You may not remember, but I've already killed off the Wiseman. I never thought about sending the scouts into the future but it is a possibility. Oh, and the other Generals are defiantly alive.